If you are a native speaker, chances are that you have used the expression “run around like a headless chicken” countless times. But if you don’t know it, you should absolutely learn it. It is vital for moments such as the one I’m experiencing today. It means to run around frantically trying to do too many things with seemingly no aim or purpose. In my native language Portuguese, the correspondent expression is “to run around like a dizzy cockroach” (barata tonta). I think both headless chickens and a dizzy cockroaches brilliantly exemplify the temporary state of headlessness and dizziness. It turns out that I use both quite often because, well, they are applicable to many situations that I find myself in. It is also true that, in my bilingual life, sometimes when I mean chicken, I say cockroach and vice-versa, in an emblematic example of the many linguistic imbroglios that I confront myself on a daily basis. All right. This preamble is just to say that I am feeling exactly like a headless chicken or a dizzy cockroach (take your pick, they are equally helpful): with piles of important things to do at the same time. As soon as I start doing one thing, I change my mind and do another, clueless as to which is more important. See how important a headless chicken or a dizzy cockroach can be in the life of someone like me?
arizona-me 